Sindh govt bars public movement from 12-3pm on Friday
KARACHI: The Sindh government has announced a complete ban over public movement and activities between 12 and 3pm on Friday. A ban is already in place over congregations for Friday prayers to control the spread of the coronavirus. Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah said strict action will be taken against anyone found violating the ban. The Sindh government had banned Friday prayers in the province last week. Instructions were issued to the authorities that all stores, including grocery shops and petrol pumps, be closed at 5pm.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 18:11 UTC
’18 coronavirus patients cured using Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin’
LAHORE: Mayo Hospital CEO and Corona Advisory Group Co-Chairperson Professor Dr Asad Aslam on Thursday said that 18 COVID-19 patients have been successfully treated with anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic Azithromycin during the past five days. Speaking to Pakistan Today, he said that eight patients at Mayo Hospital, four at Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) and five at other hospitals of the province were administered the drugs in the past five days. “The patients were administered two tablets Hydroxychloroquine in the morning and two in the evening on the first day whereas on the remaining four days, they were given one tablet in the morning and one in the evening. Simultaneously, they were given one tablet of Azithromycin in the morning and one in the evening for five days,” he said. “Doctors at private clinics may also prescribe these medicines if any coronavirus patient approaches them” he added.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 17:37 UTC
Govt did not follow due process in KPT chairman’s removal, says IHC CJ
On March 27, the IHC had suspended the federal government’s order terminating Akhtar’s services and had issued notices to the federal government for April 2. According to a notification issued by the Establishment Division on March 25, the federal government had removed Akhtar from the post “forthwith by modifying/reducing his period of initial appointment in terms of Section 11 of the KPT Act, 1886, with immediate effect”. “The KPT Act clearly states that a trustee or chairman could only be removed on the grounds clearly written in the relevant sections,” he added. The IHC CJ observed that the government had violated due process of the law by terminating Akhtar. He later sought written reply from the Cabinet Division secretary, principal secretary to the prime minister, principal secretary to the president, Establishment Division secretary, Ministry of Marine Time Affairs and the Marine Affairs secretary by April 10.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 16:49 UTC
Four of a family shot dead for resisting robbery
KHAIRPUR: Four members of a family were shot dead by armed persons for offering robbery resistance near Piryaloi in katcha area of Indus River on Thursday. A group of armed persons entered village Khulra in katcha area of Indus River near Piryaloi within the jurisdiction of Faiz Muhmmad Bindo police station and broke the shutter of the shop of Khalique Dino Abbasi. On the noise of the shutter, the inmates woke up. The armed men opened fire seeing them, killing Khaliq Dino Abbasi, 45, his two sons Amjad Ali Abbasi, 24, Shahid Ali Abbasi, 22; and elder brother Ali Dino Abbasi,55, on the spot. On information, police rushed to the scene, shifted the bodies to Pir Jo Goth Hospital for medico-legal formalities and later handed over to the heirs.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 16:30 UTC
Anti-bacterial spray drive begins in Sindh
KARACHI: The anti-bacterial spray drive has started across the province on Thursday in pursuance to the directives of Sindh Minister for Local Government. The minister took the decision, considering the sensitive situation of the province and asked secretary local government Roshan Shaikh to monitor the whole campaign, said a statement. Expressing his views regarding the drive Nasir Shah said that Sindh government believes in providing every possible facility to masses and under the leadership of Chairman PPP, the whole Sindh cabinet was fully devoted to fight against the current critical situation. About the extended lockdown timings, Nasir Shah explained that the decision has been made to secure the lives of people after taking all the stakeholders on board on the issue. Nasir Shah thanked police, LEAs, civil society, religious scholars for extending their complete support and cooperation during the lockdown days.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 16:07 UTC
First recovered coronavirus patient donates plasma to Karachi hospital
KARACHI: Eminent haematologist Dr Saqib Ansari on Thursday announced that the first coronavirus patient in Pakistan Yahya Jaffery, who has since recovered, donated his plasma to Children Hospital Karachi for the treatment of critical patients. While addressing a press conference along with Yahya, his parents and cricketer Roman Raees here at the Children’s Hospital Karachi, Dr Ansari demanded of the government for a go-ahead to use the plasma for treating patients. Speaking about plasma treatment, he explained that along with several antibiotics and other therapies, plasma of patients who had recovered from illnesses in the past was being used in several parts of the developed world. “A very recent study conducted in Beijing in collaboration with the world’s leading research institutes, plasma infusion in critical patients of coronavirus had yielded excellent results,” he added. He highlighted the example of the US, where the FDA had publically appealed to recovered patients to donate their plasma.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 15:11 UTC
Market watch: KSE-100 soars nearly 1,300 points on attractive values
“Traded volume improved by 61% day-on-day to 311 million shares while traded value increased to $62 million.”Top volume leaders of the session were Hascol Petroleum (+8.5%), K-Electric (+6.8%) and Unity Foods (+7.3%) that cumulatively contributed over 69 million shares. The cement sector enjoyed the bull-run the most where Lucky Cement (+7.5%), DG Khan Cement (+7.5%), Maple Leaf Cement (+7.5%), Pioneer Cement (+7.5%), Cherat Cement (+7.5%) and Fauji Cement (+7.5%) closed at their respective upper locks. Steel and exploration and production sectors did not fall behind as Amreli Steel (+7.5%), International Steels (+7.5%), Pakistan Petroleum (+7.5%), Oil and Gas Development Company (+7.5%) and Pakistan Oilfields (+7.4%) touched their respective upper locks. Overall, trading volumes increased to 311.6 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 193.7 million. It was followed by K-Electric with 20.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.19 to close at Rs2.99 and Unity Foods with 19 million shares, gaining Rs0.71 to close at Rs10.45.
Source:The Express Tribune
April 02, 2020 14:37 UTC
JK Rowling launches Harry Potter At Home for homebound families
J.K. Rowling is hoping a dash of Harry Potter will help families confined to their homes during the coronavirus pandemic. The author has launched an online initiative, www.harrypotterathome.com, which features quizzes, games and other activities. Parents, teachers and carers working to keep children amused and interested while we’re on lockdown might need a bit of magic, so I’m delighted to launch https://t.co/cPg0dZpexB pic.twitter.com/i0ZjTplVoU — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 1, 2020Rowling’s British and American print publishers, Bloomsbury and Scholastic, will contribute materials to the Potter web site and to their own web sites. “The teachers, parents and carers working to keep children’s lives as normal and happy as possible while we’re all on lockdown deserve a bit of magic,” Rowling said in a statement Wednesday. “I hope these initiatives will give children and even adults a happy distraction during their enforced stay-at-home time.”
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 12:22 UTC
Pakistan rejects India’s ‘illegal’ new domicile law for held Kashmir
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Aisha Farooqui on Thursday said that Pakistan categorically rejects new domicile law for occupied Kashmir, a day after the Indian government issued new rules, allowing an anyone who has resided in the territory for 15 years to call it their place of domicile. Terming the move “illegal”, a statement issued by the Foreign Office on Thursday said the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Order, 2020, was a violation of concerned international laws and the Geneva Convention. #Pakistan strongly condemns & rejects the latest Indian action aimed at illegally changing the demographic structure of IOJ&K. This is a clear violation of international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention. 🔗 https://t.co/OqlQuywxNL pic.twitter.com/tNy3tOdMYu — Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) April 2, 2020The statement said Pakistan had been trying to sensitise the world community to India’s attempt to change the “demography and distinct identity” of Kashmir.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 11:48 UTC
Yuvraj, Harbhajan face backlash for supporting Afridi’s appeal for donation
Former Indian cricketers Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh have come under severe criticism after they expressed support for former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi’s charity foundation in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Afridi’s appeal for donations to help people affected by the deadly virus in Pakistan has had overwhelming support from leading cricketers. Harbhajan urged people to contribute in a video message and called on other cricketers in the two countries to make similar appeals. “These are testing times, it’s time to look out for each other,” Yuvraj wrote on Twitter in a call for funds. “I really don’t understand how a message to help the most vulnerable gets blown out of proportion!,” he wrote.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 11:26 UTC
Govt to gradually repatriate Pakistanis stranded in foreign countries: FM
FM Qureshi says international flights have been announced between April 4 and April 11Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday said that federal government would gradually repatriate Pakistanis stranded in foreign countries desiring to return to the homeland. FM Qureshi said that the National Coordination Committee (NCC) approved the restoration of 17 flights yesterday (April 1). “Our first priority is to bring back Pakistanis stranded in transit and the ones whose visas have expired are second in priority,” the foreign minister said. “Our third priority is to repatriate Pakistanis and students waiting in foreign countries to return to the country.”The minister further said that international flights had been announced between April 4 and April 11. The foreign minister expressed deep concern over the situation in the Indian-Occupied Kashmir (IOK), where the coronavirus has spread and fatalities are being reported.
Source:The Express Tribune
April 02, 2020 10:07 UTC
European experts ready smartphone technology to help stop coronavirus
The European initiative, called Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT https://www.pepp-pt.org), follows the successful use of smartphones in some Asian countries to track the spread of the virus and enforce quarantine orders, although their methods would violate strict European data protection rules. “I would of course also be prepared to use it myself to help other people,” the conservative leader told reporters. It would log connections made between smartphones on a device, rather than a central server, for two weeks, using strong encryption. It has recruited volunteers from the German army to measure how different smartphone brands communicate with each other. Sascha Gartenbach, founder and chief executive of via, said the Healthy Together group was in touch with PEPP-PT on collaborating.
Source:The Express Tribune
April 02, 2020 09:56 UTC
SHC acquits all four in Daniel Pearl murder case
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday turned the death sentence awarded to Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, the prime suspect in journalist Daniel Pearl murder case, in a seven-year jail term in addition to acquitting other three suspects, earlier handed life sentences, as it announced its verdict in the said case. The other three suspects are Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil. In the detailed verdict, the bench declared that the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the suspects. The court also turned down the appeal of the state, also filed in the same year, seeking enhancement of the sentence. His murder sent shock waves throughout the world and was covered extensively in the Western media.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 06:22 UTC
Daniel Pearl case: SHC acquits three, turns prime accused’s death sentence into jail term
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) announced its verdict today on the appeals filed by four convicts in the Daniel Pearl case, acquitting three while converting the death sentence of prime accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh’s death sentence into a seven-year jail term. Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was abducted in January 2002 in Karachi and beheaded the next month, reportedly by Al-Qaeda. Following the hearings, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Hyderabad had sentenced to death prime accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, a British national and commonly known as Shaikh Omar, and life term to co-accused Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil for the abduction of the slain journalist. However, all four convicts had moved the SHC in 2002 challenging their convictions. Today, the SHC ruled that none of the accused have been proven as murderers of the slain journalist while Ahmed Omer Saeed was convicted of kidnapping the deceased.
Source:Pakistan Today
April 02, 2020 05:15 UTC
The geopolitics of coronavirus and religion
However, perhaps for the first time, the geopolitics of a pandemic were are at play, as was partially covered in my Op-Ed, “China, Coronavirus and the World” published on February 20, 2020. As stated repeatedly by health officials, the coronavirus is statistically not as dangerous as other threats to our lives. The geopolitics helped make it a monster in a superpower competition which was based on ill-intent to begin with. He codifies some examples from human history in holy books for humanity to take lesson. The coronavirus is just one tiny bit of a fraction of His powers and wrath.
Source:The Express Tribune
April 02, 2020 04:52 UTC